


Domesticity

by dontdierobb



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic, Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 12:05:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11148033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontdierobb/pseuds/dontdierobb
Summary: "Have you been eating? Drinking?"Gabriel frowns. "You've said I don't need it. What does that have to do with it?""Well, there is something we haven't tried yet, which I think could help with the pain."





	Domesticity

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Buppy for the beta!  
> Wanted to write a ficlet with domestic stuff but I live for drama  
> (Leaving a comment, even just to say you enjoyed reading, is very much appreciated. Thank you!)

"Gabriel, I think you are being rather difficult."

"Well, _Dao_ , it's not like I chose to be here."

"You have to take these appointments."

"That was my point."

There's a pause during which the man writes down something on his pad.

"You know I could kill you without even getting up from my chair," Gabriel says with a hint of monotone.

He doesn't acknowledge him. "You need to answer these questions so I can help you be better. You want to be better, don't you, Gabriel?"

"I feel fantastic," He responds, deadpan.

"We both know that's not true."

"Because you're an expert with dead men?"

"It's what we are trying to be. There's no precedent to your condition, Gabriel. Like I've said before, this isn't Overw..." He trails off, then clears his throat, glancing at Gabriel from behind his glasses, visibly nervous. "We are nothing like your previous _employers_. This is not monitoring, but _maintenance_ ," he continues.

He's mastered the vacant stare, but the doctor has had time to practice. He stares back, inspects him, writes something else down.  
  
He points at something on Gabriel with the back of his pen. "You are fading."

"You have just enough of my attention, doc."

"I mean, physically."

Reaper's eyes blink back into focus as he glances down at himself, skin crumbling, veins drying as holes burn into his muscle, like a piece of paper above a candle.

"Have you had difficulty with desublimation?"

Gabriel watches as his body floats away in dark smoke. "It's none of your business."

"Unfortunately for the both of us, I have made this my business."

"You're just going to pump me up with the same shit and give me the same pills that don't do jack shit either way."

The doctor sighs, and goes back to writing. "I shall take that as a yes." He puts the notebook and the glasses down and rests his elbows on the desk between them, hands together.

Gabriel can't stop thinking about how many times he must have been asked why he wrote things down and didn't use a tablet like everyone else. He's tempted to ask, just to piss him off, even if he already knew the answer to that.

"Any muscle pain?"

"There's no damn muscle." Gabriel huffs out.

"Phantom pain. It's--" Gabriel kicks one of the desk's legs, interrupting the doctor and making his body jump in surprise as he does his best to keep on a straight face.

Gabriel takes a deep breath. "I know what phantom pain is."

He watches him gulp and clear his throat again in an effort to seem collected. In the time he thinks up an answer, Gabriel adds, "Yes."

It takes a moment for the doctor to process that, blinking and nodding. "Have you been eating? Drinking?"

Gabriel frowns. "You've said I don't need it. What does that have to do with it?"

"Well, there is something we haven't tried yet, which I think could help with the pain."

"Some other juice you want to stab me with?" He can't hide the hint of hope in his own voice. The pain is unbearable. Staying in one form or the other is a nightmare. When he's floating, he doesn't feel anything, he doesn't think-- and perhaps it's much worse than all this pain; then making the effort to stay always proves him wrong.

Dao picks up his pen again. "I want you to eat three, maybe four times a day and drink 2 liters of water a day." He scribbles down on a new sheet. "I want you to lay down every six hours or so, for 30 minutes, whenever you're not working. "

He rips the sheet off the notepad and presents it to Gabriel on his end of the desk. He stares down at it for a moment, waiting for other instructions. He lets out a sudden, short laugh.

"You want me to nap and eat brunch? To fix my corpse that turns into smoke?" Before he has the opportunity to talk, Gabriel is overtaken by another fit of laughter, loud and barking. "You want me to try yoga?"

"It's not out of the question." A smile pulls at the grey folds of Gabriel's weathered dead skin, but Dao continues nonetheless. "The point is to help rewire your brain into feeling reactive again. Feeling alive again. Perhaps going back into a routine will guide your current treatment."

 

"I want to go grocery shopping."

"Grocery shopping? Why? There's food on base."

Jack shrugs without a word, not moving from his comfortable spot on top of Gabriel.

"We haven't gotten days off in maybe... A year? Two years? You want to spend it driving to a supermarket?"

"I thought maybe you could drive."

"I'm not driving to La Linea."

Jack finally moves his head, trying to look at Gabe. "We didn't get Christmas off last year?" He asks, confused.

" _You_ got Christmas off last year. I was in London for a hearing."

Jack lets his head fall back on top of Gabe's chest. "I thought that was one of your famous vacations."

He hears his smile. Gabriel's hand, which was petting Jack's hair, stops to tap the back of his head. "Very funny."

"I haven't had to go grocery shopping in... shit, I don't even remember." Jack sits up, his back to him, and stretches. He removes his shirt and tries to use it to fan himself. "It's always fancy meeting restaurants when we're out. I don't remember the last time I've had to cook for myself."

Gabriel looks up from his phone and takes a moment to watch his husband's back as he crosses the room to close the wooden blinds properly. It's shining with sweat, white light reflecting on the bumps of his lats and trapezius.

"I cook."

"On base. With food from base, in the kitchen on base." He locks the blinds into place and turns around to look at him, leaning back on the window as he enjoys a breeze that blows through the slits. He closes his eyes. "I just miss it. It's something simple but I almost forget what it's like. I liked it."

"You _liked_ grocery shopping?" Gabe smirks.

"Yeah." Jack leans forward to touch his toes, his back popping loud enough that Gabe can hear it from where he's sitting on the couch. He wraps his sweat stained shirt into a ball and throws it to the laundry chute on his way to the bathroom.  
Gabriel's back to checking the news on the phone when he hears the door sliding open again. He looks up to see Jack leaning on the doorframe with a soft expression, looking straight at him with his cool blue eyes.

"I can drive. I like to drive."

Gabriel laughs. "...Sure. At least the air conditioning isn't under construction in the car." He puts his phone down and sits up. "Are we even allowed to leave the base?"

"Wouldn't be a first for you."

"Would be for you, mister goody two-shoes."

Jack looks to the side, resting the side of his face on the cold metal of the doorframe. "We're within the emergency perimeter. We have our communicators."

"Yeah, in Spain."

"It's within the emergency perimeter." Jack glances at Gabe, eyebrows furrowed. "Since when do you care so much about all of that?"

"Since when are you so adventurous?"

"Buying milk and cookies, adventurous... Looks like you've forgotten what the guy you married's like, Gabi."

"Milk sounds pretty adventurous for you, old man."

Jack scoffs. "...We'll be back in a few hours."

"What if people recognize us?"

Jack seems to seriously contemplate that. He knocks his head slowly against the frame as he looks on.  
"Hats and sunglasses?"

"Alright, Captain America." He pushes himself to his feet with a sigh, stretching his arms out too. "I'm guessing you're counting on me for the Spanish."

"Well, I do German you do Spanish, remember?"

Jack disappears behind the automatic door, leaving Gabriel confused. He hears the shower start.  
"Ah, shit, yeah, the vows," he exclaims, stripping down as he starts looking into the drawer for something casual to wear. "I keep forgetting all the shit you said." This part he says louder for Jack to hear.

"Like yours didn't last twenty minutes," Jack's muffled voice echoes behind the door.

"They lasted eight minutes and twenty seconds," he says as he picks out a dress shirt and a pair of jeans for himself. He throws on the bed a plain shirt and semi-formal pants that could pass as casual for Jack. "and I have that on record."

 

They get matching hats and sandals in a souvenir shop before passing the border. Gabriel has to go back to buy sunscreen for Jack, who insists he doesn't need it.

 

 

"What's that." Jack picks out a bottle that looks like beer with opaque liquid inside. He shows it to Gabriel.

"Chocolate milk." He takes the bottle and inspects the label. "Fancy chocolate milk?"

He doesn't have time to put it back that Jack already picked something else up.

"Leche Merengada, what is that?"

Gabriel frowns and thinks. He gestures for him to pass him the bottle. "...Meringued milk? Maybe it's a Spain thing. Or I don't know, I haven't heard of that."

"Let's take some." Jack puts two cartons in their cart. He smiles at him, and Gabriel smiles back. He sees the wrinkles that form at the corners of his eyes-- suddenly, really sees them, like he'd never noticed before that Jack had grown old.

 

"I don't need to."

"You don't," Dao concludes. "But I think it's worth a try. Just try doing something that used to be natural to you, and let me know next time how it makes you feel."


End file.
